Melonhead15 and i were discussing how we each needed to do a soulmate au and here's mine! also it's dedicated to her as a thank you for helping me with my final projects all this week :-) and to celebrate that it'll be 20 days now til she's able to visit and spend the summer with me again! for those of you that are new, we met here on wattpad over three years ago now and eventually became best friends. this will be the third summer she spends with me! so this imagine is for you <3

soulmate au (note: this is the soulmate au where the world is in black and white until you see your soulmate); 2.6k+ words

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He absolutely did not want to do this.

There was a storm of emotions inside of him, wrecking his mind. The blaster in his hands felt almost too heavy to lift. His feet stomped quickly through the sand, following the lead of his brothers as they approached the tiny village in the middle of a dark, sandy planet. Jakku.

Their only instruction was to gain control of the citizens and seize the entire settlement. From there, their order was to search every inch of the place for the map. It was in the custody of one of the villagers; Lor San Tekka. Before loading into the transports, they were told to study his picture so they would see him if he tried to run or hide.

But he did not want to do this.

From the moment his feet hit the sand, the entire scene was a bloodbath. Some villagers fought back, some screamed and ran. Anyone who wasn't Lor San Tekka was in danger of being killed. They wanted no prisoners except for the man with the map.

He planted his feet firmly in the grey sand and raised his blaster. He fired without aiming, too terrified to put much thought into a single shot. He didn't want to hurt anybody.

At his right, one of the troopers fell to the ground as a blaster shot met the side of his head. As his body fell, he rushed over to him. The shaky, black-stained hand of the hit trooper lifted and brushed against his helmet. He flinched as a smear of tar-color was wiped against the visor of his helmet. Disgusted and horrified, he stood up quickly, the blaster shots now sounding distant in his ears, the screams sounding much more prominent.

There was so much death. So much hurt. He could feel it inside of everyone. Their terror, their anger, their grief, their pain. It cut him deeply.

He started to move, his feet shuffling clumsily as he tried to get away as quickly as possible. His breaths were coming out too fast and sweat was pouring down his face. As he ran, he looked behind him, afraid that someone would see him and shoot him down for being a traitor.

He was not a traitor. He just couldn't do it. He wasn't ready.

Someone knocked into him as he moved. He yelped and jumped back, raising his blaster without thinking. The girl standing in front of him, dressed in grey rags and wearing a face of terror, raised hers in return. He locked eyes with her and blinked, and then everything was in color.

Vaguely he could remember it. He could remember hearing about color from a voice he couldn't put a face or name to. About how vibrant it made everything. Now he could see it all; the depth of color in her eyes, the shadows casted across her cheeks, the flickers of fire that surrounded the entire village, the blue sparks flying as blaster shots missed villagers and took out droids and podracers and speeder bikes. Even with his vision shrouded by his helmet, he could see her. Really see her.

He dropped his blaster and held up his hands. He couldn't have killed the girl anyway, but he didn't want her to think that he was a threat to her when she was probably just as terrified as he was. His gun dropped to the sand and she lowered hers slowly, blinking several times before glancing around.

The first thing she saw on him was the smear of red blood streaked across his helmet. Her eyes locked on the visor of his helmet again for only a brief moment before something else caught her attention and she fled.

He wanted to ask her to wait, but he knew she didn't want anything to do with him. Rightfully so, too --- the First Order was currently slaughtering her village, and he was one of the stormtroopers directly in the heat of the battle.

Eventually he was found by his squadron leader and brought back to the center of the village to await Commander Kylo Ren's arrival. Only when he was able to survey the village would they be allowed to execute the survivors and leave.

He stood, gripping his blaster again, watching as the stormtroopers gathered every villager in the center of the square. It didn't take long for him to spot her. She was being dragged by her elbow as she thrashed around, desperately trying to escape. Her blaster was gone but she wasn't surrendering. She managed to pull a knife out of her belt and swung her arm around to sink the blade into the neck of the trooper holding her down. Two others flanked on either side of him and tackled her to the ground.

He jumped slightly, hearing her grunt of pain as they forced her on her knees and pointed a blaster to her head. She glared at them but remained still.

His feet were moving before he could stop himself. He approached the stormtroopers. "I saw some villagers taking cover by the well over there," he lied. "I'll watch this one. Make sure it doesn't act up. You go after the others."

"Got it." The trooper nodded and rushed off. FN-2187 took his place beside the girl and kept his blaster pointed at her.

"I'm going to help you get out of here," he whispered to her.

"What?" she whispered. She looked up at him.

"Quiet! Just wait for my cue. Run far away from here."

"Why?"

"Because we're..." He stopped. They were what? Soulmates? Some people didn't believe in that sort of thing. Did he even believe in that sort of thing? "Because you saw me."

She was silent now. Her eyes settled straight ahead and she sat back on her knees, sinking as far down as she could as Kylo Ren approached the village. Two stormtroopers brought Lor San Tekka over to him. Two minutes later, he was killed, slayed by Kylo Ren's red lightsaber. The villagers screamed. Some tried to run. But the girl on her knees in front of FN-2187 finally looked up at the same moment a blaster shot was fired at Commander Ren and frozen in the same moment.

They dragged a man hiding in the shadows into the square. He was forced on his knees in front of Commander Ren. The girl sat up slightly, looking as if she wanted to throw herself directly into the fight and do something. He hoped she wouldn't; she'd be killed in a second.

"A Resistance pilot," she whispered. The pilot was checked and then ordered to be placed on his ship. They forced him onboard. She looked up at FN-2187 in horror. "You have to help him!"

How? How could he help him? He was one stormtrooper. He didn't know a single thing about rebellion.

"Sir? The villagers."

Kylo Ren's order rang clear across the village. "Kill them all."

They all screamed and cried. Some pleaded for their lives, some attempted to fight back. As the blaster shots rang out, he reached down and grabbed the arm of the first person he had ever truly seen. She quickly got on her feet and he pointed her into the direction away from the ships and the stormtroopers.

She started to run, but she turned on her heels and looked back at him. He thought she might ask him to run with her, but instead, she pleaded. "Save him like you saved me."

He nodded and watched her disappear before he stood still, watching his brothers and sisters kill every single villager remaining. Watching it play out in color in front of him brought a new feeling of helplessness and disgust like he had never known. All he could think about was how glad he was that she didn't have to see it, too.

All of the emotions swirling inside of him made him decide. As he loaded back up on the transport, he made the decision that he would not kill for them. He would not be a mindless soldier taking the lives of innocent people that were in their way of consuming the galaxy. He would leave, but before that, he would rescue the pilot.

It ended up working out better than he thought. The two stole a TIE-Fighter and escaped quickly and somewhat-smoothly. The pilot, Poe Dameron, was brave and knew what he was doing. As the two fled the base and FN-2187 was able to defend them with guns, he finally felt free. For the first time in his entire life, he was free. And when Poe decided to give him a real name, it only solidified the freedom he was finally experiencing.

Finn. It fit him so well.

The freedom was short lived. The TIE-Fighter crashed on Jakku. As the ship tumbled through the atmosphere, bright flames clouded all of his vision. His fingers fumbled in front of him and he was able to eject his seat from the ship. As he flew upwards, he couldn't see if Poe made it, too.

He landed somewhere far away from the wreckage. He ran all the way there, sweating profusely in the heavy stormtrooper armor he still wore. "Poe! Poe, are you in there? Poe! I've got you---"

The ship was a charred mess, and inside of it was only his jacket. He stumbled backwards as the TIE-Fighter was swallowed up by the sand. It exploded a second later, created a cloud so thick he started to choke on it. The reality set in fast. Poe was gone.

Feeling lost and afraid, Finn glanced around. Color was so disorienting; the bright blue of the sky was brightened by the whiteness of the hot sun. The sand was a soft orange, which wasn't at all what he expected.

Piece by piece, he shed his stormtrooper armor. His old identity of FN-2187 was left behind. He wandered for hours, shaded only by Poe's leather jacket, sweat pouring down his face, tongue dry and desperate for a drop of water. Dust storms blinded him. The rays of the sun made his skin burn.

He was nearly at his breaking point when he finally found a village. He was grateful that it wasn't the remains of the one they had raided the night before. As he stumbled closer, he realized it was more of a market than a village. There were booths where people were trading together.

"Water," he rasped, but the creatures and people paid him no mind. He couldn't tell if they didn't speak Basic or if they didn't care, but no one was offering him water. "Water. Is there water?"

Exhausted, he collapsed against a beam that held up a slanted canopy. His chest heaved with hot breaths that burned his throat. He was so disoriented and dehydrated that he could hardly process the sight of a girl he barely knew until she stood out from the shade she was sitting under and approached him with a canteen.

There was no mistaking her for someone else. One look at her and he just knew, although she looked different than she did last night. Her hair was a mess and her face was covered in sweat. With the way he carried herself, he knew she was tired. She had been running all night.

But color was brighter around her. He had never experienced brightness before, but he could certainly see she was the brightest in the universe. The sunshine seemed to catch on her hair; the gold of sunshine covered her like a veil. He couldn't imagine anything being more beautiful.

The water sloshed inside. There was hardly anything left and it was warm against his lips, but he gulped it quickly down and watched her with amazed eyes. Pulling the canteen away from his lips, he wiped his face with the back of his hand.

"Keep the canteen," she said. "You look exhausted. You should sit down in the shade for a bit."

She turned slowly, pulling up her hood to cover her head as she stepped back into the sun. He stumbled after her. "Wait!"

She looked back at him. "Can I help you---?"

"You... you're the girl," he gasped. "From the village."

Her eyes widened in fear. "How do you---"

"You saw me," he said.

She walked up to him again, looking at him in disbelief. "You're the stormtrooper from the village?"

He nodded.

"Did you save the pilot?"

"I did," he said, and then he frowned. "I... tried. We crashed here. He didn't make it."

Her face fell. "Oh. But you tried."

"Did you know him?" he asked. "I'm sorry. I tried---"

"No, I didn't know him," she said. "I just knew he didn't deserve to die. They were going to torture him because he's Resistance. The First Order is evil. What were they after, anyway?"

"A map," he said. "A map that would lead straight to Luke Skywalker. It's Commander Ren's mission."

Her eyes widened. "Luke Skywalker, you said?"

He nodded.

"Did they get it?"

"Last I heard, they found out Poe Dameron put the map in his droid that he left here on Jakku. They're probably after it right now, which is why you and I need to go."

"You mean both of us?"

He nodded. "That's right."

"I don't understand," she whispered.

"Do you want to be stuck on Jakku forever? Look, I don't want to pretend that we know each other. We may be---" He choked on his words, feeling his face warm when he thought of what she was to him. "---soulmates, but I don't know you and you don't know me. Still, you saw me. I'm the only person on this planet that you can trust and you're the only person here that I can trust. I know that you know I'm right."

She pressed her lips in a thin line. "Where will we go?"

"Anywhere," he said. "Anywhere at all. Do you know a place?"

She shook her head. "I'm sure we can find something. Someplace safe. I've never traveled off of Jakku before."

"So we'll figure it out," he said. He searched her eyes. They were glowing with excitement, and he wondered if she was thinking about the color of his eyes the way he was thinking about the color of hers. "My name is Finn."

"___," she replied.

They smiled at each other.

"Thank you," she said. "For saving me."

His eyebrows raised, surprised. "Oh --- you're welcome."

It was incredibly strange for both of them to see one another in color. To see color at all. But as they looked at one another, everything else faded away. There was nothing that looked more perfect to her than him; nothing that looked more perfect to him than her. Everything was right. Everything looked real. And both of them knew that they wouldn't separate from one another ever; because nothing was worth looking at really except for each other.

Neither of them were aware of their surroundings enough to realize that an orange and white BB-unit and a scavenger girl were approaching them quickly, about to change the course of their lives together even further.